I don't care about Jeffrey Epstein's list.

Image © Julie R. Neidlinger. All rights reserved.

I am tired of hearing about Jeffery Epstein.

I don’t care about his list. I don’t care about the files.

To be honest, when Trump promised to release them, I had to chuckle because who thinks anything is really left? What we saw happen in terms of lawfare and fake dossiers in recent years makes me wonder that anyone assumes the evidence hasn’t hit the burn bin or bit washer.

But even so, I don’t care to know anymore. What I know of it is disgusting enough. 

It’s not a question of justice anymore, but of maneuvering.

I suspect that so many conservative talking heads made Epstein their fixation for so many years that this has become the black hole of their existence. We had drone shots of the island, speculation about the buildings on the island and what they were used for, theories on the art and objects in the background of photographs, theories on how many humans were abused and who was responsible, and who obtained blackmail material from them. The internet has increasingly opened our eyes to the vastness of evil and darkness in the world, something we hadn’t realized before. I suspect we aren’t meant or made to understand such things; we weren’t supposed to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and we don’t know how to handle the weighing of what we learn.

For those who have practically banked on the Epstein story and all its detritus, they cannot think of anything else. It was almost cathartic, for those of us not very wealthy, to see this powerful, wealthy echelon of people in the crosshairs. Epstein is now the all-encompassing boogeyman, the explanation for any celebrity, politician, or judge who behaves in a manner they dislike or don't expect.

“They’re on the list!” is now the easy defamation.

They may be. They may have done terrible things. They may never be brought to justice in this life. They may not be on any list at all.

It doesn’t matter at this point.

The entire story has become so convoluted and front-loaded with expectation and the hopes that this magic list is going to clear the swamp in one fell swoop that reality can never live up to it. It only serves as a distraction, keeping us laser-focused on years behind us instead of facing what’s coming ahead.

We do this. We take the likely or evident presence of a crime and heap on it all the hopes we have for everything we despise. And even if our worst assumptions end up being true, we can never feel that justice was served because we’ve spent so much time concentrating on this being the solution to everything. No judgment, no criminal punishment, no exposure is ever going to satisfy us, and all the while, we miss seeing other important issues happening while we were looking in the rearview mirror.

If we are genuinely horrified by the thought of human trafficking and how vulnerable people are used as objects for the pleasure and whims of those who are powerful, we should look at reducing the vulnerability of people. Some would say that is best served by spending the money and bringing justice to those who trickle down from Epstein, betting that if we could take down his entire operation, another wouldn’t rise to fill it elsewhere. 

Maybe. 

But perhaps we’d be better served by grasping the broader scope of human trafficking beyond this political gamesmanship we have going on with Epstein. 

Over 27 million people are victims of human trafficking every year, with most going for sexual exploitation. Women and girls are trafficked the most, at 61%, with 60% of those girls used for sex. Overall, children in general account for 38% of the victims. Sex trafficking is increasing. Right now, Asia has the highest number of known victims, while the Middle East is also high, particularly for forced labor. 

You can’t tell me it’s all Democrats or all Republicans, because it’s not a political issue, it’s a sin and sick perversion issue. It’s just people across the board, and I’m willing to bet that some of the people who are screaming for the Epstein list have a dark and dirty secret of their own.

Just because you aren’t on some alleged list doesn’t mean you’re not to blame; it is in America that we have some of the worst human trafficking in the world.

The United States is the number one consumer of sex in the world. We are driving the demand, and 50-60% of the children abused this way in the United States come out of the foster care system. Other vulnerable children include those who are homeless, undocumented, and kids with drug problems. Over 300,000 kids each year are considered easy prey for sex trafficking, and 85% of the kids who are trafficked in the U.S. are from this nation.

This nation is so fixated on the Epstein list and the powerful elite, all while keeping their own little secrets. Oh, maybe they didn’t go look for a sex trafficked human being. But our high demand drives the need to supply it, and that demand comes in many forms. Remember that the next time someone tells you that pornography isn’t hurting anyone, and that “sex work” is a victimless crime.

Fixing foster care, both the system and the cultural breakdown that is destabilizing families so children are put at risk, is a Sisyphean task. And there’s a reason illegal immigration is such a top issue, because illegal immigration creates the perfect situation for horrific human trafficking, including sex trafficking and forced labor and servitude.

An otherwise law-abiding well-intentioned illegal immigrant is as vulnerable as you’ll get, because they are at the mercy of the cartels, the coyotes, employers—everyone. They have no power, unless they can hide themselves in a large enough illegal community and hope not to be noticed, finding power in numbers. Insisting people are here legally and fully documented is not cruelty, but protection.

We’re so focused on one vile situation, Epstein, that we’re oblivious to the many others fomenting around us.

“Give us that list and let us watch these famous and powerful people burn!”

They will burn someday, unless they confess. I’d rather more human beings be spared the horrors of being trafficked and doing what we can about it. The pursuit of justice is noble and biblical, but I must wonder when our quest for justice has become twisted into a stand-in for something else that distracts us, allowing injustice to thrive elsewhere.

Foster care, open borders, homeless youth, unsupervised and insecure kids on the internet—the heart of humanity will always look to use and abuse vulnerable people. The laws of supply and demand are at work. The things Epstein was to have done didn’t stop with him; they are still happening somewhere right now. It has always gone on, and as long as people demand cheap labor and paid-for-sex, they will get it.

Epstein is dead. However he died doesn’t matter to me; the main thing right now is he is getting his just rewards far above what any court of law could have provided. The people who may have participated in horrific acts with children and sold their souls because of blackmail or access to power have God to deal with.

If justice in this life truly does come, wonderful.

But this nation has bigger problems than Jeffrey Epstein’s list. We’re keen to go after the supplier and manipulator, but I’d like us to consider the demand in our own lives. What are we doing that makes forced labor and sex trafficking necessary to meet the demand?

Cheap goods? Dirty movies? Favorite websites?

Make your own list first, and be as upset about it as you are about Epstein’s.